A Muslim flight attendant in the US is suing her airline after she was suspended from her job for refusing to serve alcohol. The woman has filed a religious discrimination lawsuit.
Charee Stanley, a flight attendant for ExpressJet converted to Islam a month after being hired by the company. She has enlisted the help of Council on American Relations. Stanley is said to have had an agreement with her fellow employees that the other attendants would serve alcohol to passengers. This stopped when another staff member filed a complaint with regards to her Muslim head scarf.
“We notified ExpressJet Airlines of its obligation under the law to reasonably accommodate Ms. Stanley’s religious beliefs,” her CAIR attorney, Lena Masri, said at a news conference Tuesday. “Instead, ExpressJet chose to violate Ms. Stanley’s constitutional rights, placed her on administrative leave for 12 months, after which her employment may be administratively terminated.”
ExpressJet spokesman Jarek Beem issued a statement to WWJ News on Tuesday. “At ExpressJet, we embrace and respect the values of all of our team members,” he said. “We are an equal-opportunity employer with a long history of diversity in our workforce. As Ms. Stanley is an employee, we are not able to comment on her personnel matters.”